Here's the second installment of Baby Sewing: Burp Cloths!
These are fun because you can do whatever you want with whatever scraps you have leftover from the blanket! Get yourself some Gerber 12-Pack Prefold Birdseye 3-Ply Cloth Diapers with Padding - White
. These ones with the extra padding in the middle are best. You can easily get them at Target, Babies R Us etc. I stick with Gerber (no endorsement just a better product).
You should wash them prior, they shrink and move and it just makes for a better end product. After washing measure the middle section, its usually around 4"x19" but definitely measure for shrinkage purposes :) haha shrinkage...
Once you have your measurement you can do several things;
1: Just cut a single piece and zig-zag that sucker on. This is good to do if you have an exceptionally cute or intricate fabric. Sometimes its just best left simple. One word of advice, Pin Pin Pin!! the guazey material moves a lot. You'll end up with some funkiness if you don't make sure its solidly in place. It should look something like these:
you can also make them look a bit more professional by cutting 1/4" larger piece of material and folding the edges over and pressing them before sewing it on. It makes for a cleaner look but I usually opt for the zig zag because its quicker and easier. Both ways work....
2: Multiple fabrics sewn together. This is the fun one. Be creative. Just make sure you measure right :) allow for 1/4 extra to sew the pieces together. Here are a few I've done:
3: Run along the edges instead of down the middle. Like so:
for these I will definitely recommend folding a 1/4" under and pressing it before sewing on. It looks a lot better.
5: Embellishments. I have seen lots of sites where people add embellishments, rick-rack, lace, ribbon even buttons etc in addition to the fabric. I'll go ahead and say that I don't like anything other than fabric on a burp cloth. I'll take that one step further and say I only like flannel on them. Because really, the thing needs to be functional, if you were an infant would you like it if your mom dragged a burp cloth across your face that had scratchy lace or rick-rack. Not really. I'll stick to soft cozy flannels...
The more creative you get the cuter they turn out!
Hands down my favorite things to make are for a new baby. I love flannel blankets and burp cloths and fun little toys too! :) And the best thing is that its usually pretty easy stuff! Plus I've got my little one coming in just a few months and well I'm pretty much obsessed with baby things right about now :)
I'll start with a post on BLANKETS! Because really they're my absolute favorite! These are without a doubt some of the best blankets I've used on my kiddo and will use with the next one. My Mom made these for everyone and they were always a HIT! I'm so blessed that I had enough time with my Mom for her to show me her tips and tricks. A fun note: baby blankets were the very first thing my Mom showed me how to make. I was pregnant with Katelyn and I wanted to make her some things. And the sewing just snowballed from there :)
I always make a double sided flannel blanket with coordinating fabrics. I make it 36"x36" so its nice and big and comfy. Not like those little crappy receiving blankets sold in the store. I've done them 2 ways:
Frayed Edge: cut your coordinating fabrics 36"x36" make sure to round the edges. It looks a whole lot better in the end. Take something round (I've always used a coaster but a cup or bowl will probably suffice too) and use it as a pattern, cut all 4 corners together for consistency. Place your fabrics wrong sides together and sew (use a zig zag or fancy stitch) about 3/4" in all the way around. After its sewed together, take a scissors and snip the edges all the way around. leave anywhere from 1/4" to 1/2" between snips. Here's a blanket with snips shown:
Well its actually hard to see them... but I hope you get the idea. Before you send the blanket as a gift, toss it in the dryer for a few minutes and it frays nicely. Nice, quick and EASY!
or there's the Ric Rac Bordered blanket: still cut 2 coordinating flannels 36"x36". For this you take one piece of the flannel and sew some ric rac on. Really you could use any sort of trim but I've only used Ric Rac. Pin the ric rac around the border right on the edge (sorry no pics...) and then sew it on just under 1/4" in. It ends up being right along the edge of the inside scallop. Once that is done, sew the two fabrics right sides together, leave room to turn it, then blind stitch it closed. Please don't ask me how to blind stitch as I've always been bad at explaining, I just know how to do it. Now you are done:
Now this is a quilted flannel one, which I will save for another post, but it was the only pic I have!
Stay tuned for some more baby fun to come!
